The present disclosure relates to a vise parallel or support for positioning a work piece in a vise or similar clamping device at precisely set angles selectable by the user to provide a quickly changed support to hold and orient a work piece at a selected one of a plurality of preset angles.
In the prior art, various sine bars or sine blocks have been used for precisely setting angles for work pieces held in a vise or clamp. Sine bars are usually provided with a support of precise length, and by inserting precision gauge blocks under the supports, the precise angle of the flat surface of the sine bar can be set using known geometry principals. The height of the gauge blocks needed to achieve a desired angle is generally determined from a machinist handbook, which has a set of tables giving dimensions for setting the angle of a bar of known length, usually five inches.
It has been found that for the majority of parts that are to be machined at an angle, the angles of cut relative to a reference plane will be 30, 45, 60 or 90 degrees. Having the ability to quickly position a part at one of these common angles can greatly simplify the set up time for machining a part.
Use of sine bars and gauge blocks for setting the correct angle is time-consuming, and requires a certain amount of skill to make sure that there are no foreign materials or the like on the gauge blocks that might change the angle setting of the support surface of the sine bar.